Concerns that US giant Amazon will trigger another supermarket price war by slashing prices at its newly acquired Whole Foods dragged shares in British grocers lower today.

Amazon sparked the speculation with an announcement that it will cut prices of organic products such as bananas, mincemeat, salmon, avocados and eggs sold at Whole Foods from Monday - which is when the £10.7billion takeover completes.

Lowering prices: Amazon will slash prices of some Whole Foods products like avocados and mince meat from Monday, which is when the takeover completes.

However, independent retail analyst Nick Bubb said the falls were also connected to profit-taking in the grocery sector, following recent figures showing that all of Britain's big four increased sales in the last three months.

‘Whole Foods is tiny (and over-priced) in the UK context and the fact is that the Food Retailers were due some profit-taking after a strong run on the back of Tuesday's Kantar figures,’ Bubb said.

In Britain, Whole Foods has just nine stores, most of them in London and very upmarket with prices to match.

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Nevertheless, Amazon’s entry in the grocery market may destabilise Britain’s big supermarkets, which are still fragile and just slowly beginning to see sales increase again recently after having lost customers to discounters Lidl and Aldi.

Moreover, a selection of Whole Foods products will be available on AmazonFresh, the firm's online supermarket which delivers to 302 postcodes across London and the South East.

The US online giant’s takeover of Whole Foods operations in the US and UK was given the backing by the supermarket chain’s investors earlier this week.

The merger will give Amazon a bricks and mortar presence for the first time, as it looks to extend its domination to food as well as consumer goods and books.

The deal was unveiled in June, sending supermarket shares plummeting. In Britain – where Whole Foods has just nine stores – £1.5billion was wiped from the value of Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Marks & Spencer in a single day.

Jeff Wilke, chief executive of Amazon Worldwide Consumer, said the firm is ‘determined’ to make healthy and organic food affordable for everyone, and warned ‘this is just the beginning’ as he pledged to ‘continuously lower prices’.

Amazon’s move into grocery means that the giant can now target its Prime Members with organic products, according to Ray Gaul, vice president at Kantar Retail

Ray Gaul, vice president at Kantar Retail, said Amazon’s move into grocery means that the giant can now target its Prime Members with organic products.

‘Now, with Whole Foods organic credentials, they [Amazon] can amplify the organic revolution to the 30% of British consumers who are Prime Members.

He added: ‘The amazing element of this new capability is that shoppers get to choose if they are interested because the three Amazon shopping devices that are most popular with Prime Shoppers – Mobile, Voice (Alexa), and Button/Remote (Dash button, Dash Wands) – allow shoppers to choose what they access rather than forcing lots of promotions/coupons/offers into their already cluttered email inboxes, mail slots, or newspapers.’